IDS Annual Review 2019

During the past year, international development has involved grappling with a series of dramatic social and political shifts. We have seen extreme right-wing populism taking hold in more countries; the US retreating from the global stage while China grows its influence through the Belt and Road Initiative; protest movements such as Extinction Rebellion and Women’s March gathering global momentum despite shrinking civil society spaces; and growing recognition and action on major global challenges from plastics pollution and urbanisation to epidemics and antimicrobial resistance.